How to Add the Texture Atlas Icon to Studio

June 25, 2013 15:19

DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro includes the Texture Atlas feature. Texture Atlas was originally part of the Game Developer Kit and is a plugin that reduces the size of textures for a model and gathers them all to one single texture. This is good for users who are preparing content for use with a computer game. This kind of content is subject to the 'Game Developer License.' Games requires smaller textures for real-time rendering. Additionally, Texture Atlas can be helpful for rendering large scenes in Studio where the user may want to reduce the over texture size so that the drain on system resources is less. Imagine rendering a panoramic scene with many human figures who will appear small. These components do not require high resolution textures which would simply cause the computer to work harder for no benefit. Texture Atlas could be used to reduce these textures and help over all performance with the scene in Studio.

The Texture Atlas Icon

The Texture Atlas feature is used by means of an icon in the interface. The Texture Atlas icon looks like a globe. 'Hollywood Boulevard,' the default layout for Studio, does not have this icon. There are two ways to get access to the Texture Atlas icon.

You can change the layout to 'City Limits' and you will have this icon on the right side. To change to City Limits, go to WINDOW --> Workspace --> Select Layout. Choose 'City Limits' and then press 'Accept.' This will change the whole layout to 'City Limits.' You will find the Texture Atlas Icon on the right side. This is the fastest way to gain access. However, it changes your whole existing layout. Some users may not want this.

How to Add the Texture Atlas Icon to Studio

You can also customize your existing layout by adding the Texture Atlas Icon to the interface at the top. This keeps your existing layout. To do this, open the Customize Dialogue. Press 'F3' on your keyboard. This opens the 'Customize Dialogue,' shown below:

On the left side, you can see the different interface options. These are buttons and controls that can be customized in the interface. On the right, you can see the places where these may be added. On the left, scroll down to 'Texture Atlas.' Expand it to see the icon. On the right, go to 'Create' and expand it. Drag and drop the the 'Texture Atlas' icon from the left side to the right side under 'Create.' Please see below:

Once you do this, you should have the 'Texture Atlas' icon in the bar above in Studio as shown in the screen capture below:

In addition to customizing the layout, you can also save your custom layout in Window -> Workspace -> Save Layout As.